Nisarga Yoga
by Maurice Frydman In the humble abode of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, but
for the electric lights and the noises of the street traffic, one would
not know in which period of human history one dwells. There is an
atmosphere of timelessness about his tiny room; the subjects discussed
are timeless -- valid for all times; the way they are expounded and
examined is also timeless; the centuries, millennia and yugas fall off
and one deals with matters immensely ancient and eternally new. The
discussions held and teachings given would have been the same ten
thousand years ago and will be the same ten thousand years hence. There
will always be conscious beings wondering about the fact of their being
conscious and enquiring into its cause and aim. Whence am I? Who am I?
Whither am I? Such questions have no beginning and no end. And it is
crucial to know the answers, for without a full understanding of
oneself, both in time and in timelessness, life is but a dream, imposed
on us by powers we do not know, for purposes we cannot grasp. Maharaj is
not a learned. There is no erudition behind his homely Marathi;
authorities he does not quote, scriptures are rarely mentioned; the
astonishingly rich spiritual heritage of India is implicit in him rather
than explicit. No rich Ashram was ever built around him and most of his
followers are humble working people cherishing the opportunity of
spending an hour with him from time to time. Simplicity and humility are
the keynotes of his life and teachings; physically and inwardly he never
takes the higher seat; the essence of being on which he talks, he sees
in others as clearly as he sees it in himself. He admits that while he
is aware of it, others are not yet, but this difference is temporary and
of little importance, except to the mind and its ever-changing content.
When asked about his Yoga, he says he has none to offer, no system t
propound, no theology, cosmology, psychology or philosophy. He knows the
real nature -- his own and his listeners’ -- and he points it out. The
listener cannot see it because he cannot see the obvious, simply and
directly. All he knows, he knows with his mind, stimulated with the
senses. That the mind is a sense in itself, he does not even suspect.
The Nisarga Yoga, the ‘natural’ Yoga of Maharaj, is disconcertingly
simple -- the mind, which is all- becoming, must recognise and penetrate
its own being, not as being this or that, here or there, then or now,
but just as timeless being. This timeless being is the source of both
life and consciousness. In terms of time, space and causation it is
all-powerful, being the causeless cause; all-pervading, eternal, in the
sense of being beginningless, endless and ever-present. Uncaused, it is
free; all-pervading, it knows; undivided, it is happy. It lives, it
loves, and it has endless fun, shaping and re-shaping the universe.
Every man has it, every man is it, but not all know themselves as they
are, and therefore identify themselves with the name and shape of their
bodies and the contents of their consciousness. To rectify this
misunderstanding of one’s reality, the only way is to take full
cognisance of the ways of one’s mind and to turn it into an instrument
of self-discovery. The mind was originally a tool in the struggle for
biological survival. It had to learn the laws and ways of Nature in
order to conquer it. That it did, and is doing, for mind and Nature
working hand-in-hand can raise life to a higher level. But, in the
process the mind acquired the art of symbolic thinking and
communication, the art and skill of language. Words became important.
Ideas and abstractions acquired an appearance of reality, the conceptual
replaced the real, with the result that man now lives in a verbal world,
crowded with words and dominated by words. Obviously, for dealing with
things and people words are exceedingly useful. But they make us live in
a world totally symbolic and, therefore, unreal. To break out from this
prison of the verbal mind into reality, one must be able to shift one’s
focus from the word to what it refers to, the thing itself. The most
commonly used word and most pregnant with feelings, and ideas is the
word ‘I’. Mind tends to include in it anything and everything, the body
as well as the Absolute. In practice it stands as a pointer to an
experience which is direct, immediate and immensely significant. To be,
and to know that one is, is most important. And to be of interest, a
thing must be related to one’s conscious existence, which is the focal
point of every desire and fear. For, the ultimate aim of every desire is
to enhance and intensify this sense of existence, while all fear is, in
its essence, the fear of self- extinction. To delve into the sense of
‘I’ -- so real and vital -- in order to reach its source is the core of
Nisarga Yoga. Not being continuous, the sense of ‘I’ must have a source
from which it flows and to which it returns. This timeless source of
conscious being is what Maharaj calls the self-nature, self-being,
swarupa. As to the methods of realising one’s supreme identity with
self-being, Maharaj is peculiarly non- committal. He says that each has
his own way to reality, and that there can be no general rule. But, for
all the gateway to reality, by whatever road one arrives to it, is the
sense of ‘I am’. It is through grasping the full import of the ‘I am’,
and going beyond it to its source, that one can realise the supreme
state, which is also the primordial and the ultimate. The difference
between the beginning and the end lies only in the mind. When the mind
is dark or turbulent, the source is not perceived. When it is clear and
luminous, it becomes a faithful reflection of the source. The source is
always the same -- beyond darkness and light, beyond life and death,
beyond the conscious and the unconscious. This dwelling on the sense ‘I
am’ is the simple, easy and natural Yoga, the Nisarga Yoga. There is no
secrecy in it and no dependence; no preparation is required and no
initiation. Whoever is puzzled by his very existence as a conscious
being and earnestly wants to find his own source, can grasp the
ever-present sense of ‘I am’ and dwell on it assiduously and patiently,
till the clouds obscuring the mind dissolve and the heart of being is
seen in all its glory. The Nisarga Yoga, when persevered in and brought
to its fruition, results in one becoming conscious and active in what
one always was unconsciously and passively. There is no difference in
kind -- only in manner -- the difference between a lump of gold and a
glorious ornament shaped out of it. Life goes on, but it is spontaneous
and free, meaningful and happy. Maharaj most lucidly describes this
natural, spontaneous state, but as the man born blind cannot visualise
light and colours, so is the unenlightened mind unable to give meaning
to such descriptions. Expressions like dispassionate happiness,
affectionate detachment, timelessness and causelessness of things and
being -- they all sound strange and cause no response. Intuitively we
feel they have a deep meaning, and they even create in us a strange
longing for the ineffable, a forerunner of things to come, but that is
all. As Maharaj puts it: words are pointers, they show the direction but
they will not come along with us. Truth is the fruit of earnest action,
words merely point the way.

I
AM THAT

Dialogues
of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Nisarga
Yoga by Maurice Frydman

In
the humble abode of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, but for the electric
lights and the noises of the

street
traffic, one would not know in which period of human history one
dwells. There is an

atmosphere
of timelessness about his tiny room; the subjects discussed are
timeless -- valid for all

times;
the way they are expounded and examined is also timeless; the
centuries, millennia and

yugas
fall off and one deals with matters immensely ancient and eternally
new.

The
discussions held and teachings given would have been the same ten
thousand years ago and

will
be the same ten thousand years hence. There will always be conscious
beings wondering about

the
fact of their being conscious and enquiring into its cause and aim.
Whence am I? Who am I?

Whither
am I? Such questions have no beginning and no end. And it is crucial
to know the answers,

for
without a full understanding of oneself, both in time and in
timelessness, life is but a dream,

imposed
on us by powers we do not know, for purposes we cannot grasp.

Maharaj
is not a learned. There is no erudition behind his homely Marathi;
authorities he does not

quote,
scriptures are rarely mentioned; the astonishingly rich spiritual
heritage of India is implicit in

him
rather than explicit. No rich Ashram was ever built around him and
most of his followers are

humble
working people cherishing the opportunity of spending an hour with
him from time to time.

Simplicity
and humility are the keynotes of his life and teachings; physically
and inwardly he never

takes
the higher seat; the essence of being on which he talks, he sees in
others as clearly as he

sees
it in himself. He admits that while he is aware of it, others are
not yet, but this difference is

temporary
and of little importance, except to the mind and its ever-changing
content. When asked

about
his Yoga, he says he has none to offer, no system t propound, no
theology, cosmology,

psychology
or philosophy. He knows the real nature -- his own and his
listeners’ -- and he points it

out.
The listener cannot see it because he cannot see the obvious, simply
and directly. All he

knows,
he knows with his mind, stimulated with the senses. That the mind is
a sense in itself, he

does
not even suspect.

The
Nisarga Yoga, the ‘natural’ Yoga of Maharaj, is disconcertingly
simple -- the mind, which is all-

becoming,
must recognise and penetrate its own being, not as being this or
that, here or there, then

or
now, but just as timeless being.

This
timeless being is the source of both life and consciousness. In
terms of time, space and

causation
it is all-powerful, being the causeless cause; all-pervading,
eternal, in the sense of being

beginningless,
endless and ever-present. Uncaused, it is free; all-pervading, it
knows; undivided, it

is
happy. It lives, it loves, and it has endless fun, shaping and
re-shaping the universe. Every man

has
it, every man is it, but not all know themselves as they are, and
therefore identify themselves

with
the name and shape of their bodies and the contents of their
consciousness.

To
rectify this misunderstanding of one’s reality, the only way is to
take full cognisance of the ways

of
one’s mind and to turn it into an instrument of self-discovery. The
mind was originally a tool in the

struggle
for biological survival. It had to learn the laws and ways of Nature
in order to conquer it.

That
it did, and is doing, for mind and Nature working hand-in-hand can
raise life to a higher level.

But,
in the process the mind acquired the art of symbolic thinking and
communication, the

art
and skill of language. Words became important. Ideas and
abstractions acquired an appearance

of
reality, the conceptual replaced the real, with the result that man
now lives in a verbal world,

crowded
with words and dominated by words.

Obviously,
for dealing with things and people words are exceedingly useful. But
they make us live in

a
world totally symbolic and, therefore, unreal. To break out from
this prison of the verbal mind into

reality,
one must be able to shift one’s focus from the word to what it
refers to, the thing itself.

The
most commonly used word and most pregnant with feelings, and ideas
is the word ‘I’. Mind

tends
to include in it anything and everything, the body as well as the
Absolute. In practice it stands

as
a pointer to an experience which is direct, immediate and immensely
significant. To be, and to

know
that one is, is most important. And to be of interest, a thing must
be related to one’s conscious

existence,
which is the focal point of every desire and fear. For, the ultimate
aim of every desire is

to
enhance and intensify this sense of existence, while all fear is, in
its essence, the fear of self-

extinction.

To
delve into the sense of ‘I’ -- so real and vital -- in order to
reach its source is the core of Nisarga Yoga.

Not
being continuous, the sense of ‘I’ must have a source from which it
flows and to which it

returns.
This timeless source of conscious being is what Maharaj calls the
self-nature, self-being,

swarupa.

As
to the methods of realising one’s supreme identity with self-being,
Maharaj is peculiarly non-

committal.
He says that each has his own way to reality, and that there can be
no general rule. But,

for
all the gateway to reality, by whatever road one arrives to it, is
the sense of ‘I am’. It is through

grasping
the full import of the ‘I am’, and going beyond it to its source,
that one can realise the

supreme
state, which is also the primordial and the ultimate. The difference
between the beginning

and
the end lies only in the mind. When the mind is dark or turbulent,
the source is not perceived.

When
it is clear and luminous, it becomes a faithful reflection of the
source. The source is always

the
same -- beyond darkness and light, beyond life and death, beyond the
conscious and the

unconscious.

This
dwelling on the sense ‘I am’ is the simple, easy and natural Yoga,
the Nisarga Yoga. There is

no
secrecy in it and no dependence; no preparation is required and no
initiation. Whoever is

puzzled
by his very existence as a conscious being and earnestly wants to
find his own source, can

grasp
the ever-present sense of ‘I am’ and dwell on it assiduously and
patiently, till the clouds

obscuring
the mind dissolve and the heart of being is seen in all its glory.

The
Nisarga Yoga, when persevered in and brought to its fruition,
results in one becoming

conscious
and active in what one always was unconsciously and passively. There
is no difference

in
kind -- only in manner -- the difference between a lump of gold and
a glorious ornament shaped

out
of it. Life goes on, but it is spontaneous and free, meaningful and
happy.

Maharaj
most lucidly describes this natural, spontaneous state, but as the
man born blind cannot

visualise
light and colours, so is the unenlightened mind unable to give
meaning to such